Conflicting Ideals
by Call Me Bree the Blonde
Summary: Taking place during and after a combination of the endings of Shadow the Hedgehog GameCube game, the focus is on Shadow forcefully inheriting the Eggman Empire (although I'll probably throw in buckets of extra material.) Featuring Shadow, Sonic, Tails,Knuckles, Shade, Cream, Rouge, Amy, and just about everyone else that I can relevantly work in. Only T for Shadow being Shadow. . .
1. No Rest for the Wicked

I've been reading a lot of Fan-Fictions so I can better figure out how this whole thing works, and something that I keep seeing (and enjoy) is to have an author's note beforehand about the story, so I'll try to make a point to do so! Also, I prefer to write in first-person perspective, for this particular one I will jump around on whose I use, so P.M. me if you can't figure it out, although I try to make it obvious. Just to add a bit more, I'll write a short quip of a different character's thoughts/actions sometime during the chapter in _italics _at the end.

Updates might take a bit longer since I'm going to be writing it simultaneously with a Harvest-Moon-world story. They are both going to be lengthy since only tidbits of the main plot will be given at a time, the main focus being on character interaction and development.

You should know that I start a story with only a vague idea where I want to go with it, so I may update chapters with new content depending. Enjoy! C=

* * *

Ever since we had taken out the black comet and vanquished the black aliens, Sonic hadn't been acting like himself. Rather than being enveloped in the throes of a happy victory, his mood closer resembled that of when we first rode home on the ARK—the time we had thought Shadow was dead. I ask him what was wrong when we were around all of the others on the space trip back, they weren't paying him enough attention to notice unless I brought it up, and I didn't want him to be nettled the entire way back home. Now that we were back in Mystic Ruins, though, any topic should be fair game between us.

Especially since he was too out of his typical spirit to even take a nice run back home, we had walked most of the way in silence. "Sonic, what's up with you?" I ask bluntly.

"Hm? Well, I suppose I can tell you, Tails." He ceased his half-hearted walk and slumped into the fresh, soft grass. "Eggman is dead."

"Eggman, dead?" This was difficult for me to grasp, and probably even more so for Sonic—we had faced him time and again, each time victoriously, but the way he always managed to return made him appear inexorable. This continual contact had made me feel familiar with him, not that I ever felt anything in the way of liking beyond a gear of respect for his adeptness with machines. But after the Nocturnus conflict, I found that I couldn't shake that feeling, even if he tried to seal us in the Twilight Cage so he could carry on with his evil deeds in as peaceful of a manner as evil deeds can be taken. We had even joined together to stop the Eclipse Cannon and the ARK from colliding with the Earth . . . "Y-you're sure?"

"Course I am—Knuckles told me." He said simply and continued to gaze at the sun that was dipping behind the hills. "He saw Shadow just before he killed Black Doom, and heard about Eggman then."

"Black Doom?" The name wasn't familiar, "One of Eggman's henchmen?"

"Not exactly," Sonic chuckled, breaking up a bit of his downcast countenance, "He was the leader of the black aliens."

"But why would Knuckles lie? He told the rest of us that the black aliens didn't have a leader, and even if he they did, the comet was space junk . . ." _He could at least have told me, too! —We've done so much together, and even if I can't do as much as Sonic, I'm not a kid anymore!_ "And how did _Shadow_ get up there? He didn't come with us in the rocket."

"Who _ever_ knows what knows what Shadow's up to?" Sonic sighed in contempt, I knew how he found Shadow's mysterious nature infuriating, "But I couldn't get anything more out of Knucklehead besides the bit I just told you—said that he was stretching the edges of 'his promise' to Shadow as is." Sonic grinned at me, as is his way of dealing with uncertainty, "Eggman is probably already public information, but keeping Black Doom a secret is really important to Knuckles, although I suppose you could tell Cream," he slid me a wink.

I forgot about what I wanted to say as a blush showed through my fur. "You're just saying that because Cream's really intelligent and sensible, and will know not to tell anyone, right?" _Not because you can tell that I'm interested in her, right?_

"Sure, Tails," I could easily see his canines—Sonic grinned such, but then fell again. "Seriously though, Cream only. I'm not sure what's going on, but he was so serious that I nearly fell guilty about even telling you, and I know that Knucklehead gets mislead often—"

"Isn't that the truth?" I chortle, pulling up a patch of fur to reveal a scar Knuckles left when Eggman had convinced him that Sonic and I had taken the Master Emerald he so diligently guards, when Eggman himself was guilty.

"Heheheh, but no harm can come from keeping it a secret, right? The aliens were under a dictatorship instead of a democracy, so what?"

"Yeah, but I gotta admit that I'm curious about how Shadow got to the comet. I'd theorize that maybe he just became really adept at using Chaos Control to teleport, but the aliens had the last two Chaos Emeralds."

"Even if we were mistaken about the sixth and seventh, traveling all that distance would be impossible, including how powerfully he can manipulate their powers," he added the end bitterly.

"Maybe he traveled in a sequence of Chaos Controls?"

"Too exhausting. Even the 'ultimate life form,'" he said somewhat sarcastically, "couldn't manage that much. You remember how he fell to earth after defeating the final hazard?"

"And managed to survive doing so," I counter, but decided to cushion my statement, as Sonic got touchy when he thought Shadow outmatched his own prowess, among just about everything else about Shadow, "although it _would_ be easier to manage a soft landing than to oppose the earth's gravitational pull, and he lost _so_ much of his memory, too."

"True, all true . . ." Sonic paused for a while before shaking his blue spikes and adding, "Anyways, no point getting too fussed before tomorrow, I'll find out what's happening then."

"Why? Are you going somewhere?" _I wanted to hang around the forest like old times for a little while_.

"I have 'a date to DIE for!'" Sonic husked his voice a little so it sounded more like how Shadow's had when both of our teams "had a date" with Eggman—who really turned out to be Metal Sonic posing as him to gather information on Sonic, much to Shadow's chagrin as he had been searching for Eggman with Rouge and Omega to uncover the past he had forgotten after hitting the earth.

A strange sense of foreboding gripped me, "How'd you get in contact with Shadow?"

"I didn't. Knuckles pulled me aside just we imploded that comet to tell me that Shadow wanted to meet two days from then on Prison Island and that it's probably important." Sonic rested himself on his back so that he could view the moon, shattered by a demonstration of Eclipse Cannon's power, rising, "seems like there's never rest for the wicked."

"Yeah, I can't even remember the last time we made it home before something else happened—and isn't that an interesting choice in location?" Prison Island was G.U.N. security base where both Gerald Robotnick, Shadow's creator and Eggman's Grandfather, and Sonic were held, and still remained so even after Eggman, Shadow, and Rouge bombed it **and** the black aliens trashed the place. The nearby forest area was also where Shadow and Sonic had fought for the first time, not that Shadow probably remembers any of that since it happened before he fell.

"Sure is," but Sonic didn't seem to really be giving the matter much thought; indeed, as much as Shadow nettled him, Eggman's death was weighing on stronger on his mind. "I was going to stand him up, just to annoy that faker, but then Knuckles told me that tidbit that we've been yapping about for over a thousand words." He gave one of his trademark grins as he stood up to stretch. "Let's just let it be until after tomorrow right? I could do with some shut-eye."

I take the same action as my idol, "Only if we can take the 'normal way.'"

"You mean a dash that shakes everything I pass?" He rotates his arm, getting pumped. "Think you can keep up with the speed of sound?"

"I won't have to; I have a nice shortcut planned out while you're dodging obstacles." I take off into the air, for once hoping that he was honed enough to beat me, because however cavalier Sonic wanted to be about it, I couldn't shake off the ominous feeling about his meeting with Shadow.

* * *

"_True, all true . . ." I consent on a point that I would normally argue on—I was too distracted. _

_Shadow _kill_ Eggman? I had been in complete denial until watching Rouge tease Knuckles about visiting a certain shrine once we landed reminded me of a file she had shown me in secret. Shadow had been created by Eggman's Grandpaps with classified DNA. I'd bet that Eggman knows—knew something about how Shadow ticked, some weakness that Faker didn't want exposed. I shake my head quills, _no point worrying myself or Tails about all this. I'll just enjoy my time until tomorrow_—I give voice to my thoughts so Tails can hear them._

"_Why? Are you going somewhere?" Looking into my companion's blue eyes full of concern strengthens my conviction to keep quiet so that we can enjoy the little peaceful time we have left._

"'_I have a date to DIE for.'"_


	2. Scrimmage

Writing two stories at once is quite weird . . . They're both so different that I can keep the plots straight, but sometimes it can be a bit hard to go from a felon's mind to something completely different, per say, _Sonic! _But once I got used to it, I had fun! . . . until the end . . . **sniffle** Ah well, plot progression and all that garbage that prevents Tails and Sonic from frolicking into the sunset.

By the way, has it ever bothered anyone besides me when they bathe or brush their teeth? I mean, they look WAY too sparkly clean at the end of a level (when you get the rating) to have just smashed up a bucket of bad guys **and** been running around ridiculous places to boot! I think that they just have someone touch up their appearance in Photoshop so we _see _them looking dandy, but, in reality, it's a different story . . .

* * *

Racing through the tangled undergrowth of the forest that shielded Tails's workshop was so cleansing that the only shadows that crossed my mind, for a precious snatch of time, were the ones hid plant life I could stumble over—granting Tails close in a few yards distance behind me.

_**Is**__ he behind me? _My peace is disturbed when I can't find the confidence that would prevent me from even **considering**a question like this before—if Eggman can kick the bucket, then why couldn't Tails catch me up? He became stronger every adventure we went on together in every way, who is to say that he couldn't make use of his new tail muscles to push him ahead?

A willow makes a surprise appearance next to my nose. Had it been another tree, I would have the bark with an impression of my face, improving its appearance considerably, but this willow didn't have a good sense of aesthetics. It had a curved trunk that acts as a ramp, launching me into the sky.

_Up above the world so high, like a blue Chaos Emerald in the sky . . . _Rotating myself as I shoot up, I gained extra air and caught sight of Tails—he was still behind the usual debris that gets kicked up when I hit Tails says is warp speed, but what I call a warm up. Interestedly, I watch Tails adeptly dodges the wreckage still rising and falling around him. Although I'm watching from a distance, his progress is clearly visible—he nicely smashes through any plant life that would inhibit watching his abilities. Even as I start to feel gravity, he catches up enough to get in range of a homing attack so, naturally, I unleash one.

"Ahaahhh!" Tails hollers in surprise, like a spikey blue bullet whirred at him in a dead-on course before grabbing hold of his ankle or something. My mouth widens into a smile before he recovers to kick his feet up into a backflip, launching me upwards once more.

Laughing now, I shoot another homing attack. "Not going to work, buddy!"

"Really?!" Tails spins to show me the bottom of his shoes, using them launch off of my attack, pushing me backwards and propelling himself out of range from another homing attack.

_Well played._ I think as leaves dash from under me—I had fallen back into the jungle. It wouldn't be hard to catch up on land, I hit the ground and start bustling, but what I wanted was another go at goodie two shoes in the air.

Five seconds later, I had covered enough distance to hold the lead once more and changed my course into a compact circle, dashing through the course so fast and furiously that it inspired the air to take the same route, and then the foliage got in on the party, too. _Try to get past this! _Some helpful logs hovering in the air offered themselves to me until I was soaring on the winds as much as any of the riders did.

I spotted Tails struggling against being sucked into the gale that I'd whipped up. "Nice weather we're having, don't you think so?" I have to yell above the raging winds.

"Sure, Sonic," he dodges a metal plate zinging through the air. "I'm sure the Tornado _loves _the sight of what it was named after!"

I chortle, "Yeah, I whipped up a large enough gale to be seen just about anywhere!"

"No, bolt head!" Tails glares at me, "It's ripping at my workshop as we speak!"

"Oops." I lower down to the earth and speed in the opposite direction of the winds, dispersing it. As the debris settles back into the earth clearing the air, I see that his workshop indeed had been within homing range.

Tails lands roughly onto a mushroom, but I dash up the hill to write "Sonic was totally here first!" into the dirt that covered the workshop's outer walls before returning to help him up. "Alright?"

"Probably better than my workshop . . ." His voice was down cast, making it occur to me that Tails had been looking forward to seeing his workshop after all of the time he'd spent away from it.

"Nah, it's never been better looking! Just, ah, wait here for a minute, okay?" I "warm-up" speed back up to the workshop. It was coated with dirt, but five seconds later found it sparkling as an Emerald from some shine I'd found in a cabinet, except for the bit I'd written on. There were also metal shingles missing from the roof, but they were easy enough to find as they glinted under the sun and soon they were back in place, freshly cleaned. I'm just glad that all of the doors stayed on their hinges and that the Tornado couldn't see my own from inside of the garage.

Tails reached the top of the stairs on the hill a moment later, "Not your best cleaning job, but it has been a while."

"I must be too sped up from _vanquishing a whirlwind _to care about the little things; see, it looks like I missed a spot." I grin mischievously, pointing to the message I left for him and then morph the double exclamation marks into a smiley face with the tongue sticking out.

"Ha. Ha." Tails's smiley tone made his sarcastic laugh sound happy. "Let's just get rid of that!" He swipes his tails across the window, but they were too dirty to do any more than add some shading and smear the words.

"Guess being in a tornado gets you a little dirty, huh?" Now that I looked, the pearly sheen of my gloves, shoes, and blue fur had all gone ruddy.

"Just a little bit."

"Ah well." I open the door to the workshop, but Tails grabs my arm, stopping me from getting any further.

"Nuh uh! First we're going to take a bath in the spring nearby. No way you're taking that filth into my home!"

"Baths lose priority when you're saving the world!" Was the last thing the black aliens experienced before I'd taken out _hedgehog body odor_? No more than they deserved—but gross! And everyone whose opinion I gave a ring about was in that enclosed shuttle with me on the way home, too . . . how had I not noticed?!

"That's true, but when you meet with Shadow tomorrow you don't want to suffocate him before he can talk to you."

"Oh . . . right." I had forgotten all about tomorrow.

* * *

"_Oh . . . right." The happy energy that had hovered around Sonic evaporated, and he slowly started walking down the steps._

_Out of view behind him, I whipped my head with my tails, cursing my stupidity. I had said it trying to be funny, make light of a heavy situation and be happy like he so often did, and I thought that he had been doing just that at the time. Why hadn't I realized that tomorrow weighed too heavily on Sonic for him to be so joyful unless he had forgotten about it? He had a moment of bliss and I had stolen it._

_I snap myself in the back of the head again and started to follow him. _Way to go, Tails, **way to go. **My hero had been enjoying the silence before the storm and I'd taken it._ Another tail slap. _But maybe I can still make it up to him at the spring, give Sonic a back massage or something if he'll stay still long enough. _I stop staring at my own feet to catch a glance at how Sonic was acting. His slow pace and countenance were nothing like how gleeful he'd been during our air skirmish. Tail slap. _Way to go, Tails . . . way to go . . .


End file.
